The Nightingale and the Rose Oscar Wilde

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In the centre of the grass-plot was standing a beautiful Rose-tree, and when she saw it, she flew over to it, and lit upon a spray.

Look, look!' cried the Tree, 'the rose is finished now;' but the Nightingale made no answer, for she was lying dead in the long grass, with the thorn in her heart. One-act opera by American composer Margaret Garwood, The Nightingale and the Rose, libretto by Garwood, Chester, Widener College Alumni Auditorium, 21 October 1973 You said that you would dance with me if I brought you a red rose,' cried the Student. Here is the reddest rose in all the world. You will wear it to-night next your heart, and as we dance together it will tell you how I love you.'Death is a great price to pay for a red rose," cried the Nightingale, "and Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?" My roses are yellow," it answered; "as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden who sits upon an amber throne, and yellower than the daffodil that blooms in the meadow before the mower comes with his scythe. But go to my brother who grows beneath the Student's window, and perhaps he will give you what you want."

A record album called The Happy Prince was recorded on 21 August 1945 [9] and issued in 1946 by American Decca Records, with Orson Welles narrating and Bing Crosby as the Prince. [10] The Prince gives a ball to-morrow night," murmured the young Student, "and my love will be of the company. If I bring her a red rose she will dance with me till dawn. If I bring her a red rose, I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine. But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She will have no heed of me, and my heart will break."The story begins with a young student who is lamenting in his garden because the love of his life will dance with him in the ball only if he brings her a red rose but there is no red rose in his garden. The Nightingale, living in the oak-tree of his garden, hears the young man crying over his helplessness and lamenting the fact that all his learning is useless since it cannot win him a girl’s love. The nightingale comes to know that the young man is weeping for a red rose. She feels the pain of that boy and wants to help him. The bird flies and goes to the various bushes but cannot find a red rose. Finally she comes to know about a way of getting a red rose by a tree. She performs a suicidal act while singing with his heart on the thorn, giving her heart’s blood to a white rose which turns it in to a beautiful red rose. In this process the Nightingale dies. This character appears in the beginning of the story. When the student cries, he overhears him and laughs at him because he finds it useless to cry for a red rose.